Georgia White Tails

There are that many deer in GA. I have hunted the Wildlife Management Areas, the National Forests and the National Wildlife Refuges. On one particular WMA just north of Atlanta (Pine Log) with an annual hunter success rate of 5% give or take I ahve killed 9 deer in the 7 hunts, on Piedmont NWR and another "Unnamed" NWR I have always managed to kill deer. On my deer leases I have had less success. I would say that the main reasons is intensity. I know that I ahve a short window of time to hunt and therefore I hunt public hunts very hard with as much scouting as possible before the hunt. The way that I hunted the public land was to seek out those areas where other hunters did not know how to get to or did not scout. The short seasons for the quota hunts also means less pressure on the deer. I also tend to have a "if it's brown it's down" meat hunting attitude on public land and go for trophies on my lease (I've passed on two 8 pointers and a 6 pointer this year). When pressured, deer go nocturnal and become very difficult to see much less hunt. They are there, they are just hiding or avoiding places where they are being disturbed. Of course if the place you hunt is poor habitat you might as well try hunting bullfrogs in the desert.
My experience has shown me that deer are as smart if not smarter than hunting dog's.
You can learn a lot about deer hunting by observing dogs when bird hunting. They can smell those birds from a long way away. Deer can scent your trail from a distance, they do not have to cross your trail to know that you have been there. Watch how a dog that has 3 or 4 years on them and have been exposed to a lot of birds works as compaired to a 7 or 8 month old pup and you will see the difference between a button buck and a mature white tail; be that deer a buck or a doe.

That's my opinion and we all know that opinions are like a certain part of out anatomy.